


Cross My Heart

by Mirrored_Illusions



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
Genre: Angst, Community: fannish-advent, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2015-01-27
Packaged: 2017-11-21 18:36:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/600870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mirrored_Illusions/pseuds/Mirrored_Illusions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Buffy began collecting crosses when her first Watcher gave her one that his family had given to their current Slayer for the past 200 years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1996-1998

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Cross To Bear](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/14668) by s.a.. 



> This was written for the community fannish_advent on LJ.
> 
> Not beta-read.

**1.    Merrick Jamison-Smythe / 1996**  
The first thing he did after giving her the Slayer Spiel was to give her a silver cross and to tell her that it was of utmost importance that she wear it, or another one, at all times. He had been so serious when he had said it; but being a 15 year old cheerleader she had just laughed incredulously at him.  
  
He had informed her it had been blessed by a number of important holy people over the last 200 years, and that it would keep her neck safe from vampires as long as she wore it. She hadn’t believed him.  
  
To her amusement he had been properly scandalized when she told him she had never owned a cross necklace in her life. She had tried not to laugh at his reaction, she really tried, but it had been too funny.  
  
The cross itself was clearly old and well-worn. It looked like it had been made to appear like a smaller and thinner cross had been laid upon a bigger and wider one. The whole thing was about the size of her thumb and had what she recognized as a Latin inscription etched into the back.  
  
It had looked foreign in her small hand.  
  
 **2.    Oliver Pike / 1996**  
Pike had shown up at the Hemery High school dance and given her a small, very simple gold cross and told her to wear it. He had insisted that she needed to wear one, even if she couldn’t bear to use the one Merrick had given her.  
  
She’d been annoyed when he gave it to her, but later that night when Lothos and his minions had attacked she’d been grateful. The tiny piece of jewelry had bought her enough time to kill several vamps that had managed to get a little too close to her.  
  
 **3.    Rupert Giles / 1996**  
Less than a year after she met Merrick, her second Watcher handed her another silver cross; this time with what he told her were Scottish Gaelic words of protection carved into the back by hand. This one was nearly 300 years old, but had significantly less signs of having been worn. The filigree around the edges were pretty, but overall not her style.  
  
When she asked he said it was tradition for a Watcher to give their Slayer an old cross which held special protection. After she pressed him he also admitted that another part of it was to take it back after the Slayer was killed. It annoyed her to no end that he insisted that it was not lent to her but a gift and therefore her personal property and not a loan.  
  
When she got home that night she put it beside the cross her first Watcher gave her and forgot about it.  
  
She never wore it.    
  
 **4.    Angel / 1996**  
Like Merrick and Giles he gave her a cross simply because she was the Slayer, not because he wanted to specifically give Buffy a piece of jewelry. It stung a little when she thought about it years later.  
  
Angel’s cross was also silver, but unlike the ones she had been given before it was relatively big and plain with no decoration or text. It was, however, obviously new and shiny.  
  
She wore it occasionally for the next few years, but stopped when Angel left her after the mess that was her high school graduation/the Mayors attempt to ascend.  
  
The day after she took it off and put it into the same box as the ones she had gotten from her Watchers. The difference was that the one she got from Angel had a small ring on the chain; a ring with two hands touching a heart with a crown above.  
  
 **5.    Willow Rosenberg / 1997**  
Willow gave her a dark wooden cross with a smaller bronze cross over it and held in place by tiny bronze nails for her 16th birthday. It hung on a leather cord that matched the wood. It was pretty.  
  
Her new best friend spent the next ten minutes telling her about how the sales woman knew her parents were Jews and kept asking her why she wanted a cross. Apparently telling the woman that it was a present and having it gift-wrapped wasn’t convincing enough to make her believe that she wasn’t secretly a Christian.  
  
 **6.    Cordelia Chase / 1997**  
Even after Sunnydale collapsed into a crater she still didn’t know why Cordelia, of all people, had given her a necklace. It was so out of character for Sunnydale High’s Queen C.  
  
However the cross was small and went well with many of her clothes so she wore it often throughout her junior year. According to her sort-of friend it was hand-made, and consisted of 5 emerald green stones set in a familiar shape.  
  
 **7.    Jenny Calendar (Janna Kalderash) / 1998**  
Miss Calendar gave her a Gypsy cross pendant made of bronze the day after Angel lost his soul. Her teacher told her it had been made for the Gypsy princess Angelus had killed a hundred years ago.  
  
It had a pentagram meticulously drawn in the middle and symbols she didn’t recognize going up and down the arms on both sides.  
  
Her resolution to ask her teacher about it came to an abrupt end when her former lover killed the woman.  
  
 **8.    Kendra Young / 1998**  
The Jamaican Slayer gave her a small and simple silver cross while they were walking back to the Summers home when she came to help with Acathla. It was a nice gesture, and one that she didn’t expect from the Council-raised girl, but it was much appreciated.  
  
She firmly told herself to buy a cross so she could return the favor, but two days and a sharp fingernail later and she was back to being the only Chosen One.  
  
It hadn't occurred to her until several days later to wonder, or even ask, if Mr. Zabuto had ever given Kendra any crosses. After all, she had never seen the girl wear one.


	2. 1999-2001

**9\. Wesley Wyndam-Pryce / 1999**  
She got her third Watcher about a month after her 18th birthday, and like his predecessors he gave her the cross his family gave to their Slayers.  
  
This cross was also silver with an ornate pattern around the edges and the Lord’s Prayer inscribed in Latin on the back. It was about two and a half centuries old, had clearly been through some up-close battles, and like the Jamison-Smythe and Giles family crosses it was regularly blessed by a number of priests and holy people.  
  
Wesley gave Faith a clearly new and shiny cross that had also been inscribed with the Lord’s Prayer, but the text was in English rather than Latin. It was also blessed.  
  
She was the only one who saw the brief flicker of pain in the other girl’s eyes, and wondered what kind of cross Diana Dormer had given Faith and if she still had it.  
  
Buffy didn’t wear the cross, and to her knowledge Faith didn’t wear hers either.  
  
 **10\. Alexander "Xander" Harris / 1999**  
Xander gave her a cheap costume jewelry cross for Christmas a few weeks after Sunnydale was visited by the Gentlemen. He told her she needed more crosses with bright colors and she conceded that he did have a good point.  
  
It had seven small stones placed horizontally and five stones across. The stones were alternately clear and a light pink. It was really pretty and girly.  
  
 **11\. Joyce Summers / 1999**  
Her mother gave her a cross necklace in white gold before her high school graduation. It came in a small box wrapped in silver colored paper and with a pink bow on top.  
  
It was small and feminine, and would quickly become her favorite piece of jewelry. The chain would break, be ripped off by demons and vampires, or it would snag on her clothes, but she would always find it again and replace the chain with a new one. But the actual pendant would remain with her long after Sunnydale fell into a crater.  
  
Most importantly it was a memory of her mother that she could carry with her everywhere.  
  
 **12\. Daniel “Oz” Osbourne / 2000**  
Oz gave her a black leather collar with an infused and raised silver cross in the front. He told her he had bought it in a pet store during his travels and then added the decoration himself. It was a perfect addition to her leather outfits.  
  
Buffy had a suspicion it was both a sort-of delayed revenge because she and Willow had given him a dog collar as a gag gift after they found out he was a werewolf, and a souvenir from Tibet. He gave Willow a nearly identical one, the only difference was that hers had a Star of David.  
  
 **13\. Tara Maclay / 2000**  
For her first real Christmas with the Scooby Gang Tara gave Buffy a cross made of pewter with a pentacle in the middle.  
  
In explanation of the pentagram she had carefully told the Slayer that the symbol had been used in magical rituals for a long time before it had been hijacked by the Satanists and given a negative connotation.  
  
It had appeared in old magical grimoires, such as the Key of Solomon, and their use was to “fore-know all future things, and command whole nature, have power over devils, and angels, and do miracles.”  
  
She only wore the cross a few times so Tara could see it, but it was quickly relegated to the box with all her other unused crosses.  
  
 **14\. Riley Finn / 2000**  
Riley gave her a golden cross after he found out about the silver one Angel had given her years before. She’d bitten back a retort about how childish his reaction was, and had smiled instead. After all her vampire ex wasn’t all that mature about the people she dated either.  
  
The necklace hung low on a long, thin chain and the pendant was a large hollow cross cutout. It wasn’t really her style but she dutifully wore it occasionally when she knew her boyfriend would be there.  
  
 **15\. Quentin Travers / 2001**  
Travers gave Buffy a tiny copper cross right before he and the other Council members went back home to Britain the second time.  
  
There were no fancy patterns or inscriptions on it, no added decoration or protective charms. It didn’t even have a chain.  
  
What it did have were scratches and indentations proving it was old and well used, and when he dropped it into her hand she could feel both its age and the magical power it held.  
  
He refused to explain why he gave it to her, just insisted that she wear it until Glorificus was dead.  
  
Buffy went home and put it in the box with all her other Council crosses and forgot all about it.  
  
 **16\. Anya Jenkins (Anyanka) / 2001**  
The former Vengeance Demon gave her a bronze cross before they went to stop Glory. It was unadorned but light as a feather, and hung on a heavy chain of bronze intertwined with a soft leather cord. The weight difference was slightly weird, but there had been no time to think about it.  
  
Buffy had put it on hastily and hidden it under her white sweater.  
  
In the end it didn’t help.  



	3. 2001-2004

**17\. Spike (William Pratt, William the Bloody) / 2001**  
Spike sort of awkwardly handed her a cross wrapped in an old newspaper after the disaster that had been her resurrection. Unlike his normal confident and straight-forward self he had tried, unsuccessfully, to avoid eye contact with her. He had also left quickly.  
  
He had claimed it had been in the pocket of his leather duster when he’d stolen it off of Nikki Wood’s body. It was old and showed the clear signs of wear and tear caused by battle. It also had the now familiar protective magic on it, which Buffy took to mean it was most likely the one Nikki’s Watcher had given her when she was first Chosen.  
  
The cross itself was a silver crucifix with a tiny Jesus Christ on it. Above the head was a short projected nameplate made of white gold which read INRI. A quick online search had told her it was an acronym that represented the Latin inscription Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum, which translated to Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews.  
  
Much, much later, when she had managed to dull the harshness of being alive again, she had realized that he’d given it to her because he was afraid she’d be killed again. This time for good.  
  
When Buffy went through the few things she’s brought with her after Sunnydale sank, she briefly debated with herself if she should give it to Robin or not. But in the end she decided to keep it.  
  
 **18\. Dawn Summers / 2002**  
Her little sister, the former Key, gave her a cross in the shape of a sword.  
  
It was an off the rack purchase, something that could be bought in any of the many shops that sold jewelry across the world. But as far as Buffy’s cross collection went it was unique.  
  
The sword was double edged and about the length of her index finger from the pommel at the top of the hilt and down to the point of the blade. The chain was connected to it on either side of the cross-guard.  
  
Despite the lack of precious metals, inscriptions, fancy decoration, and spell work it became one of her favorites if for nothing else than that it was a cross without obviously being one.  
  
 **19\. Hank Summers or Grandma Summers / 2003**  
Her father sent Buffy and Dawn a much delayed package in April, which turned out to be their share of the inheritance after their paternal grandmother, and a copy of her Last Will and Testament. One of the items had been the gold cross she’d worn since it had been given to her by her husband right after they were married. Both girls had heard the story many times when they were children.  
  
Grandma Summers had died while Buffy herself had been in Heaven, which they haltingly guessed was the real reason why it hadn’t been sent directly to Revello Drive. After that it had apparently been left in storage when Hank and the secretary left for Italy.  
  
There was no personal letter for either of the girls or any explanation as to where their father was or if he intended contact them.  
  
 **20\. Robin Wood / 2003**  
Robin gave her a cross before they entered the final battle.  
  
It was small, silver, and unadorned. There was nothing special about it and could’ve been bought in any jewelry store.  
  
During the battle inside the Hellmouth she absently noticed that Faith had one exactly like it, except hers was gold and slightly bigger. The sight made her happy.  
  
 **21\. Andrew Wells / 2003**  
Andrew nervously gave both of the Slayers a stainless steel cross on a keychain before they left Los Angeles to go their separate ways. They were all leaving for different parts of the world, some to find the newly Called Slayers, some to set up preliminary defenses on the Cleveland Hellmouth, and some to go back to England and try to free up the Council accounts so they could rebuild and expand their new/old organization.  
  
The crosses had ‘Buffy, the Slayer of Vampyrs’ and ‘Faith, the Slayer of Vampyrs’ inscribed on the back, respectively. The front had what looked like crossed mini stakes in the middle. Above them was a miniature Scythe and below was a small replica of Faith’s knife.  
  
It was sweet, geeky, and so typically Andrew. Both of them ended up using the keychains, and over the months they each got an appropriate number of keys added to it.  
  
 **22\. Faith Lehane / 2004**  
Faith was one of the few who didn’t give Buffy a cross necklace. Instead she gave the other Slayer a three-fingered ring with a plain, sideways silver cross. It was inscribed with the text “The Chosen Two” in reversed raised letters so that it would brand the vampires and, of course, for greater impact.  
  
The dark-haired woman had given her the ring on the one year anniversary of the Battle of Sunnydale. It was one out of two custom made rings that Faith had designed herself after seeing a similar piece of jewelry in a mall.  
  
The major difference was that this one was made out of silver and reinforced steel for longevity and the fact that it was going to be used as a weapon by a Slayer. It was also blessed by a number of priests and priestesses, wiccans, and other holy people in addition to having other protection spells on it.  
  
Faith had naturally kept the other one.


End file.
